Entrustable Professional Activities in General Practice: Applications and Prospects

Abstract

The concept of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) was initiated by a medical professor in the Netherlands in 2005 with the aim of enhancing the implementation of competency-based medical education (CBME) in clinical practice. After more than ten years of development, great progress has been made in EPAs (mainly for training and assessment) in a variety of medical specialties in many countries, which has influenced general practice significantly. Some countries such as Canada, Australia and the U.S. have been developing their own EPAs in general practice, which can be applied to the supervision and assessment of trainees, and the entrustment decisions of supervisors. To our best knowledge, limited research in China has been focused on the EPAs, let alone their applications in general practice. We analysed the research developments, potential challenges and prospects of EPAs in general practice, hoping to provide evidence for future research in China.

Keywords

• entrustable professional activities|competency-based medical education|general practice